Games from decades ago do not make up the majority or even a significant percentage of Nintendo's revenue. I agree that Nintendo should take some kind of Netflix-of-classic-gaming approach with their Virtual Console, but this will not rake in billions of dollars.

They're in a transitional period, and the strong yen is devastating to a company that does as much international business as Nintendo does, so things will obviously not be up up up. The way the numbers look a year from now (NX launched; mobile strategy better established) will shape the future of the company more than the way they are today.

This is not realistic. Some of these companies aren't around, aren't willing to negotiate for reasonable amounts of money, etc. Some of these games were based on licenses that are no longer available for any amount of money.

Borderline-no one pays for games on mobile devices anymore. Do you want a free-to-play Mario game? Personally, the idea of playing Zelda on a touchscreen with no tactile buttons sounds miserable to me. How would you even tell what you're doing in a game like Super Smash Bros. if you don't have any buttons and your fingers are covering so much of the screen?

If only that were realistic.

Makes me wonder... if they put more effort in to virtual console and had a big effort towards game licensing where they offered hundreds of titles from the NES, SNES, N64, and even GC era games that were always backwards compatible from home console to home console, seems like they would be able to have a pretty steady audience. Yeah they can't get everything, but they could certainly make a bigger push.

They could even sell retro controllers for each of the consoles they're emulating and probably make a good amount based on accessories. I feel like a ton of folks would buy updated NES, SNES, or N64 controllers to play the games using the controllers they were meant for.

Yeah, their classic games won't work well with touch screens (with the exception of maybe rpgs), and any separate controller for the phone will just be a barrier anyway (the controller will likely be the size of a portable system anyway!). Also putting all your chips into the past seems like a way to lose investor confidence fast, and that's even ignoring the existence of illegal roms. "Our new business model is licensing old titles and making people pay for them!" Still, that little non expandable NES will sell like hot cakes so maybe they do it as a side business, I'd certainly support a VC if they weren't so archaic with the licenses.

I'm seemingly one of the few people here who loves the 3ds though. Well, not the 3D part, but the games coming out for it.

They are doing mobile, and wisely they're not just straight porting stuff over with touch controls. It was a major concession by them for sure.

On a side note my daughter has been getting really into Fantasy Life. She eagerly awaits a sequel, but the sequel is a mobile game because the developer feels that's where the adult gamers spend their money. This is from a developer, level 5, which has made many iconic console and portable games.

So here's my crazy theory: The NX is three things
1.Home Console
2. Portable Handheld
3.Smartphone/tablet

Have everything a smartphone can do except make phone calls. So it would be more like an ipad.

The tablet doubles as the home console as it can be hooked to the tv via wireless hdmi. Have the option to use both touch controls and physical wireless controller at home.

There is no docking needed cause the tablet is the console.

Exactly. I'm sure it's better on the Android side of the world, but Apple's requirements for a mobile controller are miserable. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but at least at one time, controller manufacturers couldn't even provide their own buttons or joysticks; they had to source everything through one Apple-approved supplier, and everything down to the colors and arrangements were tightly mandated by Apple. You can have a controller with L1/L2 and R1/R2, but you can't require that in case someone has a controller with just L1/R1. You can't require a controller at all, let alone a specific controller. Even if Nintendo were to make an iOS controller for their games, they'd be severely hamstrung in what they could do.

What is wireless hdmi? Is that feasible?

If all it takes to win this thread is to post an idea that is impossible for them to do even if they wanted to then sure.

You lose this thread.

If Sony couldn't make the Vita a success, I think the handheld market is pretty much done. Think about it, the Vita has hundreds of PS1, PS2, and PSP games, a huge library of indie games, free PS+ games every month, a gorgeous OLED screen, and could play PS4 games if you had it in standby mode. Other than the memory card feature, the system was pretty flawless. But it still comes down to the fact that people don't want to lug around another device. Cellphone games make it easy enough to pass the time nowadays.

I thought that it would be affordable but according to Amazon prices its not possible

I guess it would still be hardwired once home and use traditional wireless controllers.

How is an extra controller better than a 3ds in your bag?

Licensing fees for games you don't publish.

The Vita died because of the DS/3ds, and then the utter lack of support by its parent company. Not sure how you can point to the death of the Vita and ignore the success of Nintendo's own handhelds. They are waning, sure, but still popular.

The effort to make a graphically intense Vita title must have been pretty high, considering its power compared to the DS. Why sink development costs into it when the install base is small if even Sony won't past the initial launch.

It obviously wouldn't take up 0 space, but it would be better than touch-screen controls and wouldn't be a full separate screen. It would be collapsible.

That's all I ever wanted. Thank you.

New NX controller confirmed!

So you do understand! Glad I could help.

I'm a part of the problem. I have a Vita with a 64 GB card filled to the brim with amazing games. I pretty much only play Marvel Puzzle Quest even when at home.

So what happens if the NX is a failure? Try try again?

Try again with an even crazier gimmick console since apparently it's the only way some, including Nintendo, think they can compete.

It depends on how much money they lose. It took Sega a few failed consoles to give up and Nintendo has a boat load of cash.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...siness-zelnick

That's a very optimistic view. While not untrue of the company as a whole over their entire history, there has been a steady decline in the overall success of their "something"s. I wouldn't go so far as to give Nintendo credit for willingly letting hardware viability "decline" either.

That's slate of WiiU games shown at E3 really captivated you, didn't it.

If NX winds up being the platform that Iwata talked about, at least this dead spell might be the last one for a long while. They wouldn't be starting from zero with every hardware launch anymore.

...but, yeah, it's moronic that Nintendo's mindset seem to be "well, we have a new system coming out in 2 years, so we should probably forget about the one with millions upon millions upon millions of established users".

Depressingly, I think this is Nintendo's idea of gracefully winding down a platform. The majority of what's been coming out is from external developers, and Nintendo's just overseeing/publishing 'em. Hopefully this means that Nintendo's internal teams are full steam ahead with a hell of an NX launch slate, but...well, a couple of years between big titles didn't make the Wii U's launch look any better, so who knows?

Regardless of the platform, the NX needs a lot of quality launch titles. They aren't in the position to release a kick-ass system (relatively anyway) people want like Sony did. Based on the rumors/info thus far, it's a portable system that can be played at home, and according to Digital Foundry it's powered by Nividia's Integra X1, and quite possibly their X2 since the release date for the NX is slated for March 2017. Will we get another gimped system or will it be a handheld closer to the performance of the PS4/XO? If it's the latter, Nintendo fans should get excited. I'm not holding my breath, and after the Wii U's lack of support, I'm on the fence about the NX.